Can I dive to 40m (130ft)?

[kafkaland]

In my opinion yes, you have enough experience to do 40m dives assuming your dives to 30 and 35m went as planned.

I guess it depends on what "planned" means here. If these dives were fully planned out, with contingencies like what you do when you have a free flow at depth and your guide or buddy isn't paying attention, or whether you have enough gas to complete deco if you exceed your planned bottom time by five minutes, and what you'd do if you lose your gas while having a deco obligation, and you have practiced the skills involved in dealing with these scenarios, then those dives are good data points for assessing whether you can go deeper or not. But if they were just "follow the guide" dives, hoping that noting would go wrong, then getting away with it doesn't really tell you much.

 

[Dan]

That is nonsense. Some of my most amazing reef dives to date were at those depths. The cool stuff doesn't just top at 60 ft. Some would argue the really cool stuff is 200 ft.+.

OP, get your EANX cert. and see if you can't get bigger tanks. With a guide, you'll likely be fine. Watch your gas.

There are some cool stuff in the deep (>100’ / 30m), but rarely compare to the shallow (<60’ / 20m). In the deep, it’s cold, dark (you need a good dive light to see better down there), short NDL bottom time to deal with. You need some experience, good air consumption (what I mean by a good air consumption is when you run out of NDL before you run out of air, e.g., SAC of 0.4 cfm, comes with experience), cool under pressure when you encounter problem (again comes with experience), a good buddy (in my case a guide) to watch me for sign of narcosis & to discuss gas planning, etc.

I like to see fish more than wrecks and did find 2 cool fish in the deep (2 out of 700 dives is what I meant by rarely). The 1st one is oceanic mola-mola at 144’ (43m) in Nusa Penida, Bali, in 2012, see the picture, below.

The 2nd one is Zebra shark at 147’ (44m) in Palau, in December 2017. See the picture below.

The best one is to go to 1000’ (300m) deep without getting wet. That’ll be in Cocos this September. I can’t wait.

 

[MikkelBC]

I will have an experienced guide with me on this one as well but I didn't want that to affect the answers I got. I'd rather not run into any problems in the first place than rely on the guide if I happen to if that makes sense

You are right - diving at the level you are at you should not be relying on the guide at all. By all means, take advice from and learn from the guide. But unless you are taking a course, the guide is just your guide, not your instructor, and he is not responsible for you. As a certified diver, you are responsible for yourself.

To carry out a dive to 40 meters (or even 30 for that matter) you need to be confident about how to plan and execute such a dive. Your plan must include gas planning and no stop time (NDL) planning. You should know before entering the water how much time you are likely to have before you need to ascend in order to avoid going low on gas or no stop time. Remember that your gas plan must allow enough gas for you to ascend while also donating gas to your buddy in case he has an equipment malfunction at depth.

If you did not already know and think about everything that I wrote above, then you are not ready.

The Deep specialty course (like other specialty courses) is a good way to pay an instructor to spend time explaining things to you and build your confidence and experience under guidance. If the instructor is good, it will be worth it. With a bad instructor, it won't be worth it, but that goes for any course.

Take care

 

[boulderjohn]

There are some cool stuff in the deep (>100’ / 30m), but rarely compare to the shallow (<60’ / 20m). In the deep, it’s cold, dark (you need a good dive light to see better down there), short NDL bottom time to deal with.

I have dived in many places where it is much darker and much colder at those depths than shallower, but I have also dived in many places where it is plenty bright and just as warm as on the surface. My maximum depth diving in Cozumel was 320 feet/97 meters. There the light on the reef had a blue-gray tint, but the temperature was about the same as near the surface, and there was absolutely no need for a light.

I agree with those who say there is no point in going that deep unless there is a point in going that deep. That point could be a wreck or some other feature. For example, at the Maracaibo site in Cozumel, there is a deep arch that many people like to swim through before ascending to shallower depths. In Curacao at one site I visited some garden eels at about that depth before ascending to shallower levels. If you do the Devil's Throat in Cozumel, you will emerge at 125 feet or so (depends upon how close you stay to the ceiling) before ascending.

In all the cases I described in the last paragraph, the time at the deepest part is not significant, and most of the dives are spent at shallower depths. In two cases I am thinking of right now, my total dive times exceeded 80 minutes using an AL 80, because I was only deep to see what I was looking for and then went shallower for the rest of the dive.

 

[CuzzA]

There are some cool stuff in the deep (>100’ / 30m), but rarely compare to the shallow (<60’ / 20m). In the deep, it’s cold, dark (you need a good dive light to see better down there), short NDL bottom time to deal with. You need some experience, good air consumption (what I mean by a good air consumption is when you run out of NDL before you run out of air, e.g., SAC of 0.4 cfm, comes with experience), cool under pressure when you encounter problem (again comes with experience), a good buddy (in my case a guide) to watch me for sign of narcosis & to discuss gas planning, etc.

I like to see fish more than wrecks and did find 2 cool fish in the deep (2 out of 700 dives is what I meant by rarely). The 1st one is oceanic mola-mola at 144’ (43m) in Nusa Penida, Bali, in 2012, see the picture, below.

View attachment 443649

The 2nd one is Zebra shark at 147’ (44m) in Palau, in December 2017. See the picture below.

View attachment 443650

The best one is to go to 1000’ (300m) deep without getting wet. That’ll be in Cocos this September. I can’t wait.

You should dive the Florida Middle Grounds. 80-150 ft. Warm, clear water, relatively untouched by man due to the distance from shore. Coral heads the size of a house. My buddy was out there a couple weeks ago diving with manta rays.

I hear the deep dives in Hawaii are pretty amazing as well.

Perhaps some areas don't have many deep water corals. Where I live it's all about bottom structure. A good bottom machine, fish finder and patience will put you on top of excellent diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is a video of two divers going deep in search of something specific (in this case, fish) in a location where light is obviously not an issue (although they are using lights). In this case, it is noticeably colder at depth than in the shallower water. The point is that each location is different, and you have to make individual diving decisions based upon the individual site you are planning to dive.

Warning--video has adult content!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Others have already shared their responses about whether you are ready. I will address the other part...

Honestly, there isn't much at 40m to see unless there's a specific wreck or something like sunfish in Bali you are chasing after. Most of the beautiful life I've witnessed is much shallower than that. Additionally, the colors and light start to go at that depth. With that said...I will address the deep specialty. It may be beneficial to have since some operators insist that you have a deep specialty before you can do certain dives with them but YMMV. I don't have one and haven't needed it. It has also not been an issue in the places I've dived. Another thing to consider is the travel insurance, dive accident insurance, and/or dive travel insurance you have. Some have depth limitations (a max depth), while others have depth limitations based on what you are certified for (ah, fine print....), while others don't and that may have significant/adverse results in the event you have an issue and need to make a claim.

That depends on where you're diving. The OP lives in Egypt ... and in some parts of the Red Sea that I've been in (Brothers, for example) there's plenty of life to see at 40 meters.

Also, there are many species that you can ONLY see on deeper dives. This species of gorgonian, for example, begins to grow at around 130 feet. At that depth they are only maybe a foot tall. At 150 feet they're much larger and more intricate, and at 200 feet and below they're a virtual forest.

To the OP I'd also caution that if you choose to go that deep, please keep a closer than normal eye on your pressure gauge, your SPG, and most importantly your awareness. Narcosis affects all of us differently, and sometimes you can be quite narc'd without realizing it or overtly feeling it. You'll need some visual references such as the information on your gauges to help you maintain a reasonably safe dive. I'd recommend doing a written plan first, and keeping it on a slate where you can visually remind yourself of what air pressure and/or time you should begin ascending.

Also keep in mind that in some places ... like the Dahab Blue Hole or Canyon ... you can get much deeper than it feels like, and maintain an closer than normal eye on your depth gauge to prevent accidentally mismanaging your dive profile. Exceeding NDL is almost too easy on dives with very clear water in places where the bottom falls away steeply.

And while it's good you're going with a guide, keep in mind that you ... and ONLY you ... are responsible for the integrity of your dive profile. As someone mentioned earlier, going deep is easy ... coming back up is the hard part. Make sure you've prepared properly for the hard part.

A couple articles I wrote for my students years back that you might find useful ... Understanding Gas Management and The Allure of the Deep ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Lorenzoid]

As others mentioned, a recreational dive advertised as going to "130 feet" usually doesn't mean the whole dive is spent at that depth. Ask the divemaster what the profile of the dive will be. If there is something worth seeing at that depth, and the time spent there is brief before ascending to shallower depths for the remainder of the dive, then it sounds like nothing especially unusual for a vacation dive. As others also mentioned, you can calculate how much gas you are likely to use, and that way you can check whether the divemaster's profile gives you a reasonable reserve of gas for contingencies. If your calculations suggest that the divemaster's profile may be pushing your comfort zone, then by all means decline to do the dive.

What my buddy and I often do on such dives is watch our gas consumption and start to ascend--sometimes earlier than the rest of the group--when our tank pressures reach what we know from experience and having gone through the calculations is the limit of our comfort zone.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

There are some cool stuff in the deep (>100’ / 30m), but rarely compare to the shallow (<60’ / 20m). In the deep, it’s cold, dark (you need a good dive light to see better down there), short NDL bottom time to deal with. You need some experience, good air consumption (what I mean by a good air consumption is when you run out of NDL before you run out of air, e.g., SAC of 0.4 cfm, comes with experience), cool under pressure when you encounter problem (again comes with experience), a good buddy (in my case a guide) to watch me for sign of narcosis & to discuss gas planning, etc.

I like to see fish more than wrecks and did find 2 cool fish in the deep (2 out of 700 dives is what I meant by rarely). The 1st one is oceanic mola-mola at 144’ (43m) in Nusa Penida, Bali, in 2012, see the picture, below.

View attachment 443649

The 2nd one is Zebra shark at 147’ (44m) in Palau, in December 2017. See the picture below.

View attachment 443650

The best one is to go to 1000’ (300m) deep without getting wet. That’ll be in Cocos this September. I can’t wait.

A year and a half ago I was at Daedalus, in the Red Sea, perched at around 145 feet completely surrounded by hammerhead sharks. But I was also diving twin 80's (sidemount) and on 25/25 trimix. Makes the dive quite a bit different than it would've been on air and in a single cylinder. I've been to 150 feet on air, and it's not an experience I'd care to repeat. We're all different in terms of how we react to high partial pressures of nitrogen, but I knew even at the time that if anything went wrong I lacked the mental acuity to deal with it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[1000RR]

First, I have to say - @boulderjohn - that video is ABSOLUTELY awesome! I think I had outbursts of the tourette's type just watching it. And I could relate as last weekend my daughter and I dove 56* water in the Gulf and I was in a less than great borrowed wetsuit - OUCH!!

My daughter and I only have about 1/2 the dives of the OP (just shy of 20). We dive every month since being certified so we stay fairly "fresh" on our skills etc. and continue to be better and better divers and dive buddies. We learn a bit every time out. I was extremely impressed this passed weekend by the affect cold had on me (besides the pain!). We are already in a habit of checking computers very often but trying the simple task of reading a compass heading, subtracting and heading back took me noticeably longer to do. Not for every dive, but for every profile of dive we've done (our dives have either been 60' reefs or 30' sand bottom Meg tooth hunts) I've checked my tables, reviewed my Rock Bottom calculations for those profiles and had a good understanding what ascent or turn pressure we needed to safely make BOTH our returns. That said, we're not ready for a 130' dive at this point. I would consider an 80' (for us) at this point depending on the environment it's in.